BOARD MEETING MINUTES, January 25th, 2025 DRAFT

The meeting will be a hybrid format, both in person at the DWA building and online via Zoom. All shareholders are invited to attend.

Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5160276420 Meeting ID 516 027 6420.

Call To Order: 10:00 AM

Welcome everyone present

Present/Quorum: Susan, Patrick, Paul, Dave, April, Todd, Frank Z., Susie Kalhorn, Gregory Burnham, Bruce Cleland, Hal Smith, Ray Hanwell, along with Zach Bergen from King County and others who joined via Zoom.

Consent Items:

Approve: Contents and order of this Agenda.

Approve: Minutes of previous meeting of December 7, 2024.

Information Items:

Guest Speakers comments (if any): None.

Board Member comments (if any): None.

President’s Report:

• Discussion with King County Parks representative re: offer to purchase a conservation easement on DWA’s property on SW 268th St, near Hake Rd SW, adjacent to the recently designated Manzanita Natural Area. April cited the general comments by shareholders on the preliminary survey that was sent out, noting that the number who responded was more than 10 percent.
• Zach Bergen from King County of the King County Open Space Team gave an informal presentation with visuals from his laptop.  He noted the County’s goal in conserving 60,000 in the next five years, and currently the agency is half through this effort. The fee for purchase of an easement is funded through levy dollars and a conservation fund. The County’s primary goal is conservation, but also passive recreation such as hiking, birdwatching, etc., but not to create an active park with recreation fields. The County already owns a nearby adjacent parcel, Manzanita Natural Area (the former Larson property). The area contains large trees and has a high habitat value. He showed photos of trees, springs, nurse trees, etc. He noted that there will likely be access from 268^th, and a community trail created to connect to the Manzanita Natural Area, and trails on it using existing old logging roads.
• Questions from DWA board members and shareholders, and Zach’s Answers:
  • What are the criteria for either a purchase acquisition or easement? King County assumed that DWA wants to continue to own the land, thus a conservation easement. An easement means DWA would hold the water rights.
  • What about liability with ownership by DWA? Any liability with users or down trees or county installation will be the County’s responsibility.
  • What about access? A parking lot? Any parking would be located on the Manzanita piece, and likely limited, for example to 3 cars. Regardless, nothing will be immediate. In the next five years development would be limited to trail creation.
  • Frank Z noted that there’s a historic value with the property, as Chinese immigrants had drawn water with 3” pipes to serve a former brick factory on Hake Road.  Access was difficult.
  • Would the easement result in a driveway or trail across the DWA property?  No driveway or parking is proposed, only a trail from the road.
  • What is a “community trail?” It isn’t just for the local community, but rather this term means it’s for walk-in access, thereby used largely by local people.
  • Will such a trail be maintained?  Yes, by County Parks.
  • No biking? Correct, the plan is likely to be just for hiking.
  • What about bikers making their own trails? How would this be prevented? It will be signed that bike use is not permitted, but there is no active enforcement.
  • No hunting? Right.
  • There may be more use than anticipated, and some demands with people wanting to park their cars.
  • What seems to be one ideal place for parking is on the old DWA wellsite on 268^th. This has not been determined.
  • Community water source protection is important. Can the County investigate the water source and its capability?  Zach doesn’t know about this.
  • Would DWA still pay property taxes on the property? Yes, but the tax is relatively minor.
  • Who is responsible for maintenance? The language in the easement will need to be verified.  King County will need to be responsible for maintaining trails. Downed trees would still be the responsibility of DWA except for those on the trails?  What about hazard trees near the trail?
  • The maintenance agreement language must address non-emergency tasks.
  • How “must” we maintain it? Such as removal of invasive plants.  Are there standards?
  • Zach suggested DWA’s legal counsel draft any changes to clarify issues such as ongoing maintenance.
  • What about the appraisal and its assigned value? The unit price doesn’t seem to be as comparable as some DWA board members think.
  • Did the county look at any other adjacent properties for access?  Unknown.
  • Zach asked that questions be provided in an email if he couldn’t answer, including easement language issues.
  • In terms of development, he noted that County Parks would need to go through the same process for permits as would a private property owner.
  • The offer currently ends on June 30, the end of our fiscal year. If DWA needs more time, could it be extended?  It’s not a hard deadline, the County has interest, so it likely could be extended.
• April noted there will be another survey, and will further consider its recommendation to the shareholders, and that the earliest final decision will not be made until the shareholders by a vote at annual meeting in June. DWA could wait or make a counteroffer. There are lots of options for the property and for potential use of the funds.
• Another mailer will go out about this.  April and Patrick will develop another survey.  Dave asks it to be ready on January 30^th to meet the deadline for mailing out with next month’s bills.
• Paul noted Duncan could provide input and review. 
• Paul and Duncan also talked about the wells at the springs, and the process of a prescriptive easement. Duncan suggests that DWA reach out to both parties of the Parks so that they come to a collective meeting with Teresa Mosqueda.
• Dave noted the King County Roads expects changes to Hake Road be made as part of the proposed main improvement on Hake Road. Specific conditions won’t be known until there is a survey. The line would move from the west side to the east side.
• Frank asked about a connection through to Manzanita. Dave responded that it’s not planned at this time. Frank also asked about upgrading of the filtration system and storage tanks and suggested  that these are more of a priority. Dave noted that a meeting with Evergreen Silos needs to occur to investigate the life span of the silos.

Manager/Operator Report:

• Annual employment reviews occurred yesterday.  Skyler and Angie make up a great ream, both are doing their jobs well. The employment contracts need to be extended, with proposed changes to his and Angie’s responsibilities to be updated because of the new billing software, and its additional work, which will be quantified. Angie may need to be allowed more hours in her contract.
• Re the Hake Road contract proposal by G&O. The proposal is bare bones, around $80K which will get the project through DOH approval and ready to bid, but not construction oversight. Can we go forward with this project?  Dave suggested putting the Piner Point/Summerhurst extension project on hold, since there isn’t sufficient demand for it from residents in that area and take its funds and move them to the Hake Road project. DWA is proposing to do 500 feet per year with payments out of pocket. This might be a new model for incremental buildouts as it could reduce the capital costs.
• Todd questioned DWA’s borrowing money at the commercial rates at 5%, noting the effort required to get the State’s low-interest loans at 1.5%, but which require application efforts and associated project requirements.
• Dave verified that the line would switch to the east side of the road around the intersection of Hake and 268^th. The road abuts to a steep embankment at to places, and King County Roads would put in abutments to retain in. Ditching in the roadway will be minimal.
• How will access to homes off Hake Road be addressed during the work? Dave noted the work will occur on weekdays, only around 500 feet at one time (hydrant to hydrant), over an estimated six years, but the work will occur in the summer, with approximately 5-6 weeks at a time. Homeowners would be notified. The dump truck and mini excavator would need to move to allow for their access during construction. The project will begin at the north end.  There will be short interruptions in provision of water as well as construction impacts.
• The contract proposal is $80K. Todd noted Board could reallocate the funds from the 94^th/Point Piner project, which is budgeted with $30K for this year. Future funds, such as the $70K allocated for next year, will be addressed later. Todd also wondered if $50K allocated for the Springs for this year would be spent this year.
• Paul made a motion that the Board approve the Hake Road contract to start the work ASAP; this was seconded by Patrick. All board members voted in favor. The Board further made a motion to reallocate the $30 from the 94^th /Point Piner Project to Hake road. Susan moved, it was seconded by Paul, all approved.
• Dave noted that the PRV project can’t go out to bid until after the DOH approved it, likely after the end of March. We have the funds available through a loan.
• Dave commented on the Springs project  G&O hasn’t yet described the potential filter system, and how we can upgrade our system. There may be an opportunity to use the existing contact basin if there’s enough water main piping length from the basin to the first meter. Dave is trying to verify the piping length (about 1,500+500 feet) and verify it will provide sufficient contact time. This might allow use of a part of the contact basin as a filer room. Permitting might be required, and again G&O is verifying this.
• In the meanwhile, Dave will adjust two of the shallow well points and add bentonite around them to protect the shallow wells.
• During ongoing maintenance Dave and Skyler discovered that a broken pipe in one 12”-wide well casing and that the pump needs fixing due to excess sand infiltration. This needs to be a good temporarily fix (lasting maybe a year) in the near future. This will be an unscheduled capital project.
• A new meter will be provided by DWA on the service on the recently sold property on 97^th since the earlier meter was removed inadvertently by DWA when the main was replaced.

Water Production Committee:

• None.

CIP Planning Committee:

• None.

Finance Committee:

• Financial summary reports for Q2 and First Half ’24-’25
  • Q2 vs Prior Year:
    • Overall, our revenue got back on track (there was very low water usage in Q1).
    • However high utility costs and Unscheduled Maintenance costs took some of the shine off.
  • First Half – ’24-’25 vs Prior Year
    • It would be good to promote the Good Neighbor Fund, again, to recruit more donors, or higher donation amounts.
    • We end the half with quite a bit more money in the bank than last year as we continue to rebuild our capital funds.
  • First Half ’24-’25 vs Budget
    • Impact of delayed price increase will be about $10,000 — we can manage that AND it means shareholders kept a bit more in their pockets.
    • We will go somewhat over budget (negative) for Operations, but we’ll be under budget for capital projects.
    • Note bottom line that we already, at 6 months, have more money in the bank than expected at the end of June.
    • As we get into budget season, we’ll put out a Forecast for the year.

Community Outreach Committee:

• None.

Old Business / Carryover Items:

• Todd raised the idea for possible new by-law, which will ultimately require vote of membership), to define a new “Legacy Fund” (to operate as a “Quasi Endowment”) that will define restrictions on the management of a “windfall” from any transaction (sale, lease, etc.) related to 268th/Hake Springs property.

New Business / Discussion Items:

• None.

Other Business:

• None.

Follow-up for Next Meeting

• Darton: None.
• Dave: Contact with G&O.
• Patrick: Assist April with the second survey.
• Paul: Get with Dave and Duncan to start negation on the springs, and comment on county easement.
• Sam: None.
• Susan: Finish notes. Bring information to the Board about community use of the DWA building.
• Todd: Revise budget for reallocation.
• April: Prepare second survey, summarize questions to Zach re the easement or purchase of the 268^th property.

Meeting End

Next Board Meeting: Saturday, February 22nd, 2025 @10AM

Board meetings are usually held on the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:00 AM. The November and December meetings are often combined into a single meeting in early December to avoid conflicts with holidays. Upcoming meeting dates are on March 22 and April 26.